Social Question

When you prepare and serve food to others is it almost always unhealthy food?

My MIL called me, because my parents will be stopping by my inlaws house for a quick visit and my MIL wanted to know what food to have for them. Mind you, my parents purposely asked to come by after lunch, so my inlaws will feel no burden to feed them. My MIL feels she has to have something and asked what cake they would like, or if they like ice cream. My dad has heart disease for 25 years and is obese, they both have to watch their cholesterol, they both need medication to control their blood pressure. Needless to say, they shouldn’t be eating cake and ice cream. Plus, they are on vacation, they will be getting fed up with restaurant and other high caloric foods.

It got me thinking, why is it the foods we usually serve to others are high fat and sabotage others. Or, maybe not everyone does.

What healthy foods do you serve other people or have at the ready if someone drops by?

I told my MIL to put out a dish of dried fruits and nuts and some Dove chocolates. They always have those things on hand anyway, i don’t want her to cook, and my parents will like those choices much better than cake.

I guess most people feel their yummiest dishes are the ones where they don’t cut the butter, but don’t most people prefer to eat healthy? I’m guilty of it myself, too often when I cook for others I use more fat or serve foods that I would I usually would not cook for myself.

Obviously not. If that was true, we’d have a much lower obesity rate in this country. The only reason I prefer to eat healthy is so my waistline doesn’t expand. If I could maintain a healthy weight eating whatever I wanted, I’d probably never consume another vegetable again.

When I go out to a party or a dinner, I don’t think about the calories in what I eat. When I eat at home during the week, I watch my caloric intake – and that’s good enough. We don’t ever have dinner guests (we prefer to be the guests) and people don’t just “drop by” our house and eat our food, but I’d be more likely to serve foods that I know a lot of people will like. I’m not going to steam asparagus and expect everyone to eat it – hell, I wouldn’t be eating it.

When we go over to my mother-in-law’s for dinner, it’s usually fried chicken, baked macaroni, and green beans cooked with bacon. It hasn’t killed us yet, and I’m much more likely to drive the hour to get to her house to eat that than I would be if she was serving salad and grilled chicken with broccoli. No thanks, I’d rather stay home.

People-pleasing foods tend to be high in fat and calories – pizza, pasta, cheese, desserts, etc. Unless you are eating away from home every single night, indulging every now and then isn’t going to kill anyone. If my one dinner is “sabotaging” my guests’ health, they don’t have to eat it, but I don’t see that ever being a factor with the people I know. If I knew a lot of people that were very conscious about their diets, that might be a different story, but I live in the south and we like to eat tasty, fattening foods when we go out.

If I was on a strict diet and went to a party, I wouldn’t get upset if all they had to eat was pizza, cake, and ice cream. I’d expect that, and eat before going to the party. Then, I would proceed to be miserable watching everyone else eating the food I so desperately want – but that’s certainly not the host’s problem.

It depends, I work at an Italian restaurant, a lot of what is made there (cream sauces and such) are unhealthy. When I cook at home I tend to make more healthy meals though I do LOVE to make dessert foods soooooooo…. :P

If any of my kids, grandkids or kid’s friends come in and say they’re hungry I say, “There’s the fridge. Help yourself! Frozen waffles in the fridge if you’re interested.”

If there is any one dish I would prepare special, for a small snack, it would be salmon dip and or / veggie dip. Not because they’re healthy but because that’s just what I’d serve. And if it didn’t get eaten, I wouldn’t care. And I certainly wouldn’t feel guilty like I should have made something else.

I think it’s important for people to explain that they can’t eat this or that dish because of health issues. If the cook takes offense, then he or she is in the wrong.